On Thursday September 6 Castle Vale Performing Arts College found itself at the centre of a storm over school uniforms. Pupils were sent home in tears for wearing the wrong shoes. Parents and children protested outside the school gates and eggs were thrown at two teachers, according to witnesses.Here, Professor Craig Jackson explains why uniforms are such an important issue for all involved.

THE contentious issue of the school uniform and slipping standards is an age-old one.

Indeed, dismay at the lack of school uniform standards among the younger generations is probably another rite of passage as one slips into mellow middle age.

School uniforms were never as pristine and clean and well-pressed as they were when we were at school, right?

Though one would dread to look back and see how terrible I looked with my Farrah trousers, day-glow socks, and rule-bordering shoulder length mullet.

A stylistic mess I may have been, but I do recall it being a neat and tidy stylistic mess.

Holding the standards of uniform to one side for a while, the significance and symbolism of the school uniform is worth exploring a little further.

For older generations, the school uniform is perhaps a subconscious way of making sure that the younger generation are reminded of who is in charge and of their relative lack of power as minors.

Whether this is right or wrong, it is of course the standard in the UK for most schools.

In other countries of course, school uniforms do not exist or sometimes co-exist with other clothes to provide a mix-and-match look.

Australian high school uniforms are often a mix of a smart school shirt and jumper, worn with casual trousers or jeans.

Some would say this summarises the Australian attitude completely; smart but casual, while others would say an incomplete or partial uniform is no uniform at all, and therefore utterly pointless as it represents nothing.

That perhaps is the situation we are currently in at present, with some children adhering mostly to the school uniform code or guidelines, but being remiss (either deliberately or unintentionally) in one key area such as shoes, colour of hair, or trousers.

What is interesting as a psychologist is how quickly school uniform issues and the attempted enforcement of standards by schools become very contentious topics that are quick to divide parents and teachers alike, into quite polarising views.

Like our attitudes to having either a full and tidy uniform or not bothering at all if it is not done properly, these views are quite distinct, often with very little evidence of a willingness to compromise.

The need for school uniformity, from a social conformity point of view, is that it is one of the earliest opportunities society has to condition and shape the attitude of children as a large group.

The danger of not inducing such conformity and self-respect at this early age could, some argue, be catastrophic to society at large when those children graduate to adulthood.

A recent survey showed that a large proportion of office workers in the UK no longer wear ties or suits to work, and that the casualisation of image has become quite common – the smart but less formal “jacket and jeans” look is now quite acceptable in some sectors and workplaces.

The uniform is essential, some say, to remind pupils that they are not in control and that adults have the power over them.

The fear is that the act of teaching and group social normalisation will be harder, even impossible do within the uniform there as a symbolic reminder.

It is worth remembering that it William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, as the children turned to savagery and became feral, they still wore school uniforms, but they were adapted to reflect their own personal “tribal look”.

This reminds us that the wearing of a uniform does not a civilization make, and more far reaching fundamental behaviours can be more important for a society than ties and shiny shoes.

Craig Jackson Professor of Occupational Health Psychology Birmingham City University